Montana or weatherby?

[MagnumManiac]

I am a fan of Weatherby cartridges, have/do own 270 Weatherby, 300 Weatherby, 340 Weatherby and 375 Weatherby. Have had 378 Weatherby and a 460 Weatherby both in Weatherby rifles. This is why I have a dislike for their rifles, will not own another one.
Both would not extract fired factory or reloads, had to push fired cases out with a cleaning rod, they went back several times and in the end I took a refund.

The free bore is a plus, it reduces start pressure allowing higher velocity than normal cartridges can produce, I like this.
When I chamber a Weatherby, I use either the original 1/2" freebore or the 5/8" freebore. The newer shorter freebore of 1/4" or less is no different to other throat lengths of other manufacturers. I don't get why they have shortened the freebore, as I have never had accuracy problems, although I don't shoot BR with any of them, but do use the 270Weatherby in 1000yrd F-Class for fun, it's not competitive in the top 20, but it still does the job.

Cheers.
gun)

 

[Hired Gun]

I suspect your issue was ammo related more than a Weatherby issue. Not extracting or able to fully chamber rounds is an out of spec belted case issue. I sell a lot of new guns on the side and Remington's are having a horrendous issue with 7 Rem Mag and 300 Win mag rifles right now. Especially the Sendero's. Some are going back 2 and 3 times and still not fully solving the extraction issues. They are just honing the chambers larger and larger to get them to work. Not a problem with the 300 RUM or the non belted cases.

I recently got a Willis Belted Magnum Collet Resizing Die Innovative Technologies - Reloading Equipment and it completely solves the issue but it needs to be used regularly. It has a gauge built into the top of it. I was able to save about 200 belted mag cases that would no longer chamber.

To my knowledge Weatherby hasn't changed the free bore specifications. They are Saami spec to the following. These are current right from the Weatherby site.

CartridgeThroat length (free bore)
224 Weatherby Magnum .162
240 Weatherby Magnum .169
257 Weatherby Magnum .378
270 Weatherby Magnum .378
7MM Weatherby Magnum .378
300 Weatherby Magnum .361
340 Weatherby Magnum .373
375 Weatherby Magnum .373
378 Weatherby Magnum .756
416 Weatherby Magnum .239
460 Weatherby Magnum .756
30-378 Weatherby Magnum .361
338-378 Weatherby Magnum .361

 

[cape cove]

I purchased the same die from Larry Willks and saved a good many cases. Great die ,well worth having if you own some belted calibers.

 

[walter351]

I have never had a problem getting my Weatherby's to shoot. Most of our camp carries some form of weatherby and there is not one that shoots over 1 inch.

 

[Dosh]

I have never had a problem getting my Weatherby's to shoot. Most of our camp carries some form of weatherby and there is not one that shoots over 1 inch.

351, what powder and bullet. A friend is having fits with his.

Thanks

 

[Hired Gun]

I think he would need the caliber to recommend the powder or bullet.

My current Mark 5 love the following. For 257 and 300 mine like 7828 and Ramshot Magnum with regular Accubonds seated at 3.300 and 3.700 with CCI-250 primers all in real Weatherby brand brass. None of mine like other brands of brass at all. Neck sized only when possible. My 257 is 1/4MOA with 75 grain V-Max's. It's a wicked ground squirrel rifle. The 300 Wby just does it all from squirrels to elk and is a solid 1/2MOA with several bullets and weights.

 

[Dosh]

I think he would need the caliber to recommend the powder or bullet.

My current Mark 5 love the following. For 257 and 300 mine like 7828 and Ramshot Magnum with regular Accubonds seated at 3.300 and 3.700 with CCI-250 primers all in real Weatherby brand brass. None of mine like other brands of brass at all. Neck sized only when possible. My 257 is 1/4MOA with 75 grain V-Max's. It's a wicked ground squirrel rifle. The 300 Wby just does it all from squirrels to elk and is a solid 1/2MOA with several bullets and weights.

HG, walter351's target reads 300Wby.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

The only Weatherby I could not get to shoot got a diagnostic look down the barrel after purchase. The throat is so fried it is a perfect example of barrel reading 101.

It was used. A bit miss represented bu I'm OK. I still got the value level I wanted. It's gonna become a 460 for a while them go back to what it was. I'm also investigating a couple available barrels for the big bolt face action.

 

[Longtooth32]

Hello all, I am down to either a Montana X2 or a weatherby Weathermark. Just seeing if anyone has any experience with either rifle.

What cartridge?

 

[horsefor4]

I own both i have weatherby Mark 5 ultra Leight 300 wby shoots 1/2 moa also have a 7 wsm Montana shoots 1/2 moa with 3 different bullets. I like them both but the Montana is my favorite barrel is the best easy to clean shoots great.

 

[Jr1972]

I own both i have weatherby Mark 5 ultra Leight 300 wby shoots 1/2 moa also have a 7 wsm Montana shoots 1/2 moa with 3 different bullets. I like them both but the Montana is my favorite barrel is the best easy to clean shoots great.

Thanks!

 

[ANARCHIST]

I have a display model Montana in 300wby - interested? never fired it, its a SS / wood model.

I have a few Weatherby rifles - in all fairness the rifles are night & day, you can not compare a rem 700 to a Mauser they too are night & day.

I have a Mauser 98 "interarms mark x" in 300wby I think that is much better than the montana - I am building a pre64 Win in 300wby to replace the Montana.

I prefer the extractor of the Win70 & Mauser - I am not impressed with the Customer Service or the quality of the Montana - fair opinion from an owner of both

 

[waltercrouse]

I will never own another Weatherby and feel they are overpriced for the lack of quality you get. On the outside, they are nice, but they use crappy barrels, and their factory-set freebore is WAY too long to get any kind of accuracy out of a rifle that is picky. If it shoots factory ammo good, it will shoot handloads, but if it is picky with factory ammo, then you will probably never get it to shoot like you want it to.

This is just my experiences with owning and constantly fighting with an AccuMark that was a lemon for 6 years. And Weatherby did nothing about it, despite the "guarantee". So I eventually traded it off, because the whole rifle was garbage...The trigger, barrel, stock, etc...The action was the only part worth keeping, so I decided best just to scrap the whole thing and start over with another Rem 700 5R Milspec.

If you are hell-bent on a Weatherby, I would actually recommend a Vanguard over a MK V rifle in stock form.

I agree with Mudrunner 2005 vanguard is good rifle . The MK V is built like a tank , it built for large big bore cartridges . I had a gun)S/W 1500 action which is the Howa action. This is the same as the vanguard action. The rifle was in 7mm08 and shot very well, ended up trading it off for something else.